90 seconds to Connect the Dots

350.org has released a 90 second video of people all around the world in 'Connect the Dots' last weekend. www.climatedots.org/watch

They have also developed two tools for transmission of the climate change story:

One is a project to help people everywhere share their stories about how climate change is impacting them. If you have been directly impacted by climate change, please take a photo with your personal dot, or submit your story to their new Tumblr http://act.350.org/go/1575?akid=1884.210235.q4e96C&t=4

Another is a presentation of photos from the 'Connect the Dots' weekend to download and share with your community http://act.350.org/go/1484?akid=1884.210235.q4e96C&t=5

Climate Change? 350.org will connect the Dots

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just published 'Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters, to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)' a report on climate change and weather extremes. The work includes evidence of past and future changes and the impacts at global and regional scales. It also has an extensive discussion about managing weather-related risks with guidance for policy makers and change-makers in general.

The activist community will support this work with an action day on May 5. 350.org is calling it a day of global witness, which will connect groups (each with a giant dot) around the planet suffering from the effects of global climate change.  The ideas is to make the pattern of Global climate change visible by connecting the dots, to refute climate change deniers and to find hope that the world will choose to take action.

The day will also feature hopeful projects like sustainable energy and community gardens. Either way Start or join an event near you www.climatedots.org 350.org has even offered to help figure out some of the logistics...

Check out the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 'Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters, to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)' http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/press-events/launch-of-the-full-ipcc-special-report

Finally, a poem: I think it is appropriate to revisit the poem from the Greenhorns and the Irresistible Fleet of Bicycles: 

Progress:

       less slavery
       less diesel
       less hunger+ obesity
       less cronyism and chemicals and corporate control

       (in the form of a brisk, conversion of our economy towards healthier mix).

       more jobs
       more rural prosperity, and dancing
       more layers on the land
       more soil biota
       more resilient economies based in places, in buildings, in relationships
       more entrepreneurship
       more faith in a more functional democracy

it may be hard, but it will not be boring.

Global communications and personal freedom

There is a new message moving through riseup.net. to warn internet users about the evils of Google, Facebook and Paypal. They encourage the use of non profit Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ rather than Google Chrome.

The gist of the email is that the corporate interests are using our information for marketing. "Email companies such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. offer great free services, but in exchange, they sell all information sent through their service (through emails, passwords, attachments, etc) to top marketing firms around the world, who then use this information to bombard and pollute our lives and the world with GARBAGE."

However, I am skeptical of the evils of the internet data. - Isn't it possible that if we collect enough data on spending and activities we begin to learn a lot about who we are? - With the steering of the MDG and well intentioned governments, activist groups and NGOs, it could be that the data gathered through the internet can help us to make the world a better place.

See GapMinder.org for more on the amazing power and potential good of statistics.

The internet is possibly the biggest thing humans have come up with since religion and it might soon become smart. Maybe we can use that smartness to make real positive change - groups like Avaaz, EnvironmentAmerica and 350.org (today's victory with the Keystone pipeline is a great example of the power of good use of the internet) and the collective organization and networking of riseup.net and couchsurfing.org are all examples of how the internet is making big positive changes, transforming lives!

As Al Gore pointed out with his Internet 2.0 idea the internet can also be a tool for good. The internet is helping the environmental and social justice movements in a HUGE way!

In the late 1990s and early 2000s we were networking through the post. It was expensive and slow. I was getting a few bits of mail a year from many organizations with as many as one a week from the well funded groups like Habitat for Humanity, WWF and Greenpeace. I signed the petitions and sent what little money I could to support the campaigns.

Today I am informed about issues as I sit at my morning coffee... Sometimes I sign a few petitions a day and make donations (still small but) on a regular basis to all the movements I feel strongly about..

So I would ask riseup.net of they are being properly precautionary or paranoid. Is the internet really a problem or could it be a boon‽

#occupy

A note from the 350 team I thought I'd pass along:

You don't necessarily need to camp out to help support this movement. You can also attend the daily general assemblies, take part in discussion groups, donate supplies or money, or put your unique artistic, media, or culinary skills to work. If you've been with 350.org for a while, this open-source approach probably feels familiar. It's more like a potluck where everyone brings a dish than a dinner party with a single host.

Look for an #occupy group near you:

http://act.350.org/go/617?akid=1363.210235.En74Na&t=3

Feeding the world without destroying it.

The University of Minnesota just put out a new video on one of the greatest ecological issues of our times: Agriculture.

In the video 'Big Question: Feast or famine?' the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment talks about rising populations, growing land area for agricultural production and gives a generally rousing call to action for agronomists, policy makers and farmers.

We are currently experiencing the 6th great extinction of the world and agriculture is playing a central role. It is important to make sure that agriculture is on the table in talks about how to solve the climate crises and the crises of ecological destruction. However, I'd like to point out a mistake they making in this question: You might remember from statistics class that correlation does not imply causation. This conversation points out a correlation between population growth and ecological decline as a central part of the argument. This correlation does not mean that population growth causes the ecological decline. If you look at the Gapminder Graph of countries with the highest GHG emissions you will see that the rate of population growth of these places is decreasing while the ecological impacts of those populations is increasing. The problems that we need to address are hidden behind this veil of misinterpreted data.

Armed with this knowledge we might start looking for real solutions to the problem. We need radical transformations of the way we interact with the natural world. Rather than looking at the staggering numbers of people being born every day into poverty and despair as the problem we should spread the resources equitably to all those people as a solution. We should also find a way to include the rest of the species in our equitable distribution.

We need radical shifts of economic paradigms e.g. ecological debt reparations where wealthy nations and multinational corporations have to pay for the damage they have caused.

If you are not familiar with Gapminder organization recommend checking them out and watching Prof. Hans Roslings talks on TED.com. See FAO STAT for the populations and Our écological footprint: reducing human impact on the earth By Mathis Wackernagel, William E. Rees for the rest.

Check out 350.org to help come up with real solutions.